CIA Agent Shot At his Own Planes during 1961 Invasion of Cuba

Washington, Aug 16 (Prensa Latina) A CIA agent mistakenly shot at U.S. planes during the mercenary invasion of Cuba at Playa Giron in 1961, USA Today reported on Tuesday.

Some of the planes provided by Washington to Cuban counterrevolutionaries were camouflaged as Cuban military planes, causing what newly-declassified CIA documents described as friendly fire.

According to what former CIA agent Grayston Lynch said in the internal CIA report, his shooting targeted two or three of those planes.

Lynch said he could not say how many planes were hit, whether or not casualties resulted, or whether any of those planes crashed.

Most of the shots were fired by a 55mm machine gun installed on a transport boat and 75mm guns on the same boat, according to the four-volume, 1,200-page CIA report.

The CIA report, the official U.S. government version of the failed attack on Cuba, known as the Bay of Pigs, was recently declassified after the nongovernmental National Security Archive filed a Freedom of Information Act request.

The B-26 planes crewed by (counterrevolutionary) Cubans were masked to look like Cuban military planes, but apparently the trick backfired against the tricksters, commented a USA Today online forum participant.

The CIA document also revealed that U.S. authorities authorized the use of napalm against military targets and to protect the area marked for the invasion landing.

In a heroic feat led by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, Cuban forces made up primarily of volunteer militia members defeated the invasion on April 19, 1961, after less than 72 hours of battle.